Archive for September, 2007

There are times where life seems to be very crazy, and times where it seems just sorta crazy. The last month has been one of the VERY crazy times for me. For the first bit of news, I've accepted a position at carfax.com as a programmer. This means that after 8 years of working for the University of Missouri, I'll be leaving. This is a BIG change in many ways for me, as I'll be moving into the private sector, working for a major internet firm (though it's far more than an internet firm), and entails a number of changes in my life. I'm in some ways VERY excited about the new position, as it entails a lot of opportunities for both personal growth as well as my professional career as a computer programmer. Carfax seems like an amazing place to work (of course, I'll know more once I actually start), and it looks like a very big step forward for me as a future position. I'm still a bit nervous however, as it's the first "real" job I've had since I was an undergraduate. For those who weren't aware of my job history, I started working at my current position while an undergraduate as a full time developer, and continued with school part time. During that time, I managed to finish my degree, and go through a number of major life decisions. I've learned a lot through my time at the University, and it's not without some regret? or perhaps just some sentimental thoughts, that I'll be leaving. I know I'll always look back on MU with some nostalgia, as well as with many fond memories. Of course, I'll have a lot of not-so-fond memories, but I'll generally think of my time here very fondly. Now, with all of that said, I'm NOT leaving Columbia, nor is much else in my personal life changing. It's a change of jobs, which though VERY major in many ways, shouldn't affect too much in my life at home. I'll actually be working much more "fixed" hours in many ways (yay no more 3am phone calls of the AC failing in the server room), and so should have a very fixed schedule. There's not much else to say on my new job at this point in time, other than I'm looking forward to it, hoping it works well for me, and glad to be moving forward in the world. Please expect more updates about this change over the next month or two, particularly once I start and get acclimated to the new working conditions.

In other news, people at my current position are starting to realize I won't be around in a couple of weeks, and are starting to panic. I've gotten a few comments such as "please don't leave", "we're really going to miss you" and related correspondence. The other side of things is I've been pretty busy with getting some things finalized before I leave, with several meetings cropping up that involve quite a bit of work, a number of changes that have required a lot of evening and weekend work, and overall just a lot more pressure to get some things taken care of "now" instead of the earlier plan of "eventually". So in addition to a massive upswing in workload since it was announced that I'd be leaving, I also managed to catch a rather nasty cold that left me pretty dead to the world over the weekend. This of course interrupted any activities such as getting out of town to relax, or do anything other than take lots of nyquil/dayquil and pretend to be something other than a complete zombie (which failed pretty miserably, I was a major zombie all weekend). I'm doing better today, but I can tell I'm still not fully recovered yet, and I'm definitely feeling sluggish. It's good that this happened before I took my new position, but bad that it hit on a weekend (well, bad for me) and bad for my house which really needs cleaning and organizing.

Despite the major change of having a new job, and the pain of being sick, there are some other things that bear a bit of commentary. First, thankfully the weather has changed to a gorgeous temperature range that's MUCH cooler than the 95 degree weather previously common. It has actually been cool enough where I feel the need to wear a coat and jacket, and I'm starting to pull the winter clothes out of the closet! Add to this the wonderful time of year that is college football season, halloween and other holidays coming up, and it's looking like the next few months are truly going to be amazing!

There's so much coming up to look forward to, ranging from the change in weather, football, the new job, and just overall a lot of life changes which I hope will be all for the better. This fall definitely proposes to be a VERY interesting time of year for me, much more so than has been the case in the last few years, and I'm looking forward to it more with every passing day. I just hope that things all turn out as well as my expectations, or if nothing else, that life continues to go so well!